Busy Lee gets down to business

Colin Lee arrived at Torquay United yesterday morning with a new player on each arm. They were marched straight upstairs to the chairman's office to complete formalities before they had time to ponder the reality of joining a club at the very bottom of the Football League.

In fairness, midfielder Paul Smith, 35, late of Gillingham, and Kevin Miller, 37, until yesterday Southampton's No 3 goalkeeper, have been around the block a few times, and will not be fazed by what they find among the palm trees on the English Riviera. In return, they offer the experience and steadiness a team in free-fall require.

Lee has been busy. Plainmoor resembled Waterloo Station at rush hour yesterday as players sat around awaiting medicals or opening negotiations with chairman Chris Roberts. Debbie and Kerry were having to raid the club shop to provide enough training kit for the new recruits.

It was what Lee had been brought back to Torquay to do. Lubos Kubik, the former Czech Republic sweeper, was appointed three months ago with limited managerial experience and zero knowledge of life in lower-league English football. It was quickly apparent he needed a helping hand.

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"Lubos has landed into a club where he wasn't really aware of what it was like," Lee said yesterday, explaining the background to his latest appearance on the south coast. "When it started to go wrong he had no one to call on."

Torquay and Kubik were like rabbits caught in the headlights: they were – and still are – spiralling towards the Conference. Lee said: "I'm surprised that they didn't phone me, or someone like me, a lot earlier because the guy needed help. We've sussed a few players, got a few different faces in the changing room. That's an on-going process. It's nice to get some business done quickly."

In addition to Smith and Miller, Lee has convinced Mark Robinson, a left-back from Stockport, and Rossi Jarvis, an England Under-19 centre-half from Norwich, that their immediate futures are helping Torquay claw back the seven-point deficit in the remaining 18 games. There will be players going out the door to balance the books.

Lee, 50, was an obvious choice to play the role of Red Adair. Out of full-time employment since leaving Millwall a year ago, he was working part-time as a scout for Steve McClaren and England. He is Torquay to the core. He was born here, went to school here, stood on the Plainmoor terraces as a boy, played for the team before being whisked away by Tottenham, and returned for a brief, but successful spell as manager in 2001.

"Yes, it is like coming home," he said, "albeit that my home is now in Burton-on-Trent. No disrespect to any other club in League Two, but if another club as far away as Torquay asked me to do the same thing then I possibly wouldn't do it. I know three of the board members who've been here a long, long time, and they're like old friends, so it's not like going into any other club."

His position is temporary, without a title, for two days a week; it will increase in the near future. There are rumours abroad that he is after Kubik's job; after all, Wes Saunders lasted two games when Lee arrived as his assistant six years ago. Lee denies both charges.

"I don't want to portray a false image; I'm having a big input here, but it's not just me; it's about us," he says. "I just love being involved in football. People say it's a drug, and it is a drug. I don't do anything else. This is what I do, it's what I'm qualified to do, it's what I enjoy doing. I like the environment, the changing room, working with players: that's what I've missed."

He is quite definite about what he wants to happen at the club. In fact, he told the board on Wednesday. It is six years since he was last there. "Nothing's changed. That's the disappointment," he said. "We have to bring the club up to modern-day understanding. We need to produce a blueprint of the way we can take this club forward. The fans deserve that."

Lee has had eight days with the players. There should be some discernible improvement when they play Grimsby, two places above them, at home tonight, especially if Lee's signings make an immediate impact. "I know the areas we need to improve on," he says. "I've seen two [other] teams in League Two, and I must say those two teams were well beatable. I still think we've got hope."